Twitter Announces First Profits

The social media site Twitter has announced its first profit since the founding of the company in 2005. The last quarter of 2017 saw the company making $ 91 million in profits. After the announcement, Twitter sharesrose more than 20%.

Twitter made the profits from an increase in ad sales and from expansion outside the US. Overall revenue has been increasing constantly and is now at $ 731 million, due to a better targetting of ads. While revenue in the US fell, it increased strongly in Japan and other countries.

Currently, Twitter is reported to have over 330 million active users. It has been an important media outlet for celebrities and politicians, especially in the United States, for a long time. However, surprisingly, up to now, the company has failed to make any profits. Business experts have criticized Twitter for failing to grow over the longer term and step out of the shadows of its bigger brother, Facebook.

The company has announced its plans for 2018. It wants to improve the quality of information and tacklesecurity issues, for example, fake accounts and spam. As many as 15% of all accounts on Twitter are said to be controlled by bots.

Twitter headquarters in San Francisco – Image: Runner1928

Words

account = agreement you have with an organisation so that you can use its services or website

ad = advertisement = pictures, text or a short film that persuades people to buy a product

announce = to say in public, officially

bot = computer programme that can control information on a website

celebrity = famous person

constantly = slowly, but all the time

currently = at the moment

due to = because of

especially = above all

expansion = when something increases in size

fail = here: not succeed in doing something

fake = not a real person

founding = when the company started

increase = grow, become larger

longer term = over a longer period of time

outlet = here: organization through which information is presented

overall = total; altogether

politician = person who works in the government, parliament or a political party

profit = the money you for selling things or doing business after your costs have been paid for

reported = it is said that …

revenue = money that a company gets in a certain time for selling products and services

rise – rose = to go up

security issues = problems in which the website is attacked by criminals and hackers

shares = part of a company that you can buy

spam = message that is sent to many different people by email or the Internet, usually as a way of advertising something